The Rose Girl
by RoyaleisiaTheStrong
Summary: Admittedly, much of what he did during flight was just to show off, but today was different. He was programming the TARDIS, programming it so carefully. Programming it to save her. Not just a Doomsday fix-it.
1. Chapter 1

"Rose, hold on!"

His desperate shout was lost in the wind that pulled them both towards the Void. For one brief second she glanced at him, her eyes begging him to help her, but she had no strength left to fight the relentless tug of the Void.

" _Hold on!"_

Her fingers gave a last despairing clutch at the lever, and then her grip was lost and she was falling, falling into the Void, and his Rose was going to die.

He closed his eyes and prayed.

Above the noise of the wind, a sound became audible. His eyes flew open and he glimpsed his Rose one last time before the TARDIS materialised around her and whisked her away.

DW DW DW DW DW

He knew she could feel the same foreboding as they spun through the Time Vortex. She sat against the wall with a grave expression, watching him fiddling with the controls. Admittedly, much of what he did during flight was just to show off, but today was different. He was programming the TARDIS, programming it so carefully.

Programming it to save her.

DW DW DW DW DW

She'd weathered rocky flights before, but this was agony. Clenched around that lever for so long, her fingers had lost all their strength, and she was flung back and forth as the TARDIS tumbled through space and time. And her mind – her mind was afire.

Where was he sending her?

When they landed it was like falling, a heavy thud on a rocky surface. She crept to the door and eased it open, prepared to slam it in the face of danger.

 _Mars?_

The ground was the colour of rust, but it couldn't be Mars, because that must be a river in the distance. But no sign of habitation. Cautiously she stepped out of the TARDIS, and she definitely wasn't on Mars, because she wasn't standing on soil, she was standing on grass.

Red grass.

She bent down and plucked a long leaf of it, lifting it before her face with a bemused smile; it looked so alien.

 _Well, of course._

She dropped the piece of grass and took a step forward, hating to crush such novel grass. Then, noticing a patch of yellow flowers, she fell to her knees in front of it and leaned over to sniff one. Its scent was like a rose's, but it looked like a daisy, and she thought suddenly of home on Earth.

About to turn back to the TARDIS, a familiar wheezing, groaning noise filled the still air, and she whirled only just in time to see it dematerialising.

"No!" she cried, but the TARDIS was gone and she was alone without the Doctor on an alien planet. The last few days had been too taxing: she buried her face in the flowers and tried to hold back tears.

"I always do like to smell a Sarlain."

She looked up. He was relatively handsome, chestnut-haired, medium height, and not too old. He knelt beside her and picked a flower – _a Sarlain_ – offering it to her. She took it and couldn't stop a little smile.

"I'm the Doctor," he said.

Her entire body tensed and she stared at him.

"And your name... is..." he prompted.

She was incapable of speech.

He raised his eyebrows at her, then looked at the Sarlain. "I hear that's like a flower they have on a planet called Earth – you like it so much, I'll call you the Rose Girl. Rose. Good?"

She felt as though she were going to burst into tears, but he bent closer to her and repeated his question.

"Is Rose a good name?"

She nodded.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Originally this was going to be a oneshot, but since** ** _TheDoctorMulder_** **expressed interest in where this was going (thanks for the review!), I thought I'd post this sort-of-kind-of epilogue. Honestly, I had no idea what I should do to Rose. Should the First Doctor fall in love with and marry her? Should he love her but help her return to Ten? (Because, admission, I absolutely ship Rose/Ten no matter what happens in this story.) Well, I guess you'll find out!**

* * *

Years had past since his Rose girl had died, her human life merely a breath compared to his, yet she was fresh in the Doctor's mind as he leaned over the cradle and gazed into his infant granddaughter's eyes. A dust of dark hair settled over the baby's head, but her eyes were Rose's very own.

He remembered it like it was just that morning rather than fifty years ago, the moment she looked up from the flower and he looked into her eyes. For the briefest second they'd flashed with gold like the heart of his TARDIS before the glint disappeared and she was human again. Oh yes, the Rose girl was clearly human, but he loved her from that moment. Even so, for months he and she had travelled throughout time and space looking for her Doctor, his tenth self whom she loved, but they heard nothing of him but whispers, as though he were a dream.

Travelling home to Gallifrey after one more such adventure, it was the first time he let himself believe that perhaps, perhaps, she might love him in return. It could have been the softness in her eyes as she told him it was time to let her past go; it could have been when they landed and she smiled at him before she ran off and couldn't be found for hours, and came back with red eyes and a smile that said many things. And she told him she loved him the day he told her he loved her.

Now she was gone, but her - their - granddaughter lay sleeping in front of him. His - their - daughter's hand reached down to stroke the child's head, and she whispered in the Doctor's ear; mustn't wake the baby.

"Will you name her, Dad?"

Of course he would. He leaned over and kissed the soft forehead.

"Sleep well, Arkytior."

 _Sleep well, Rose._


End file.
